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Memories!
My mother Grace grew up in Greenfield though her mother, my grandmother, came from Gateshead on Tyne so she often spent school holidays in the North East. The importance of Post was highlighted in some " memoirs" she wrote, probably back in the early 80s.
" I was 19 when the War started and Sam joined up the first week.He had promised his mother that he would not volunteer because his father was killed in the First World War. He was 23 and would not have been called up for some time but off he went and did it and within 3 weeks he was with the Royal Engineers in France.
In the next 6 years I had letters from France, various parts of England, West Africa, India and Burma. You will all remember Dunkirk I'm sure. The evacuation of our troops ended on the 31st May and over the next few days everyone else's man had turned up but there was no sign of Sam. Then on the 21st June I received, courtesy of the postman, a telegram which said "Arrived safe, Southampton, Sam" The shortest and most welcome message ever!
When the Germans were threatening to invade England we were afraid of losing touch with each other. We knew that in Europe families had been parted and lost touch, children looking for mothers and husbands for wives. So we agreed that if the worst happened we would leave each other a letter in a certain tree in the fields behind the Nook Hospital and would come back there from wherever we were every year on a certain date. Now the young folks would probably have a good laugh about that these days, for they seem to know nothing of the trauma of war. But, for us, it was a very real threat and we were very frightened.
During the 3 weeks that I waited anxiously for that message I was working in the Food office ( now Uppermill library) and at that time it was my job to lock up all the ration books and record the numbers issued every day.One morning I stood behind the door with my hands cupped to recieve the post when what should come through the letterbox but, youve guessed it, Ration books. I spun them across the room saying " blasted ration books!" and can see them now spinning across the carpet and up the wall under the sideboard. I was so pent up I could have screamed. It wasn't made any better when, as the news of Dunkirk came through I asked my boss " What will they do with our boys if they can't get away?" and he laconically said "shoot 'em"!
Sam eventually arrived at Southampton after 5 days at sea on a small ship dodging U boats with only enough food for the crew. After 5 foodless days he got 2 slices of bread and half a tin of bully beef which Sam said " tasted like ice cream!"
Grace and her elder brother Arthur back in 1921 |
Grace lived just round the corner from the Clarence at Valley Cottages. When she was growing up she played in the street moving only once an hour when the SHMD bus, like the one seen here, came past!
Chew Brook a regular picnic spot!
Sam, far left, in Africa. Doesnt look like beer was being rationed! Good lad! |
